This Offer Was
Politely Staved Off; In The First Place We Were Already Provided With
Protectors, And Secondly These Men Belonged To The Ayyal Shirdon, A Clan
Most Hostile To The Habr Gerhajis.
They did not fail to do us all the harm
in their power, but again my good star triumphed.
After a day's repose, we were summoned by the Treasurer, early in the
forenoon, to wait upon the Gerad Mohammed. Sword in hand, and followed by
the Hammal and Long Guled, I walked to the "palace," and entering a little
ground-floor-room on the right of and close to the audience-hall, found
the minister sitting upon a large dais covered with Persian carpets. He
was surrounded by six of his brother Gerads or councillors, two of them in
turbans, the rest with bare and shaven heads: their Tobes, as is customary
on such occasions of ceremony, were allowed to fall beneath the waist. The
lower part of the hovel was covered with dependents, amongst whom my Somal
took their seats: it seemed to be customs' time, for names were being
registered, and money changed hands. The Grandees were eating Kat, or as
it is here called "Jat." [37] One of the party prepared for the Prime
Minister the tenderest twigs of the tree, plucking off the points of even
the softest leaves. Another pounded the plant with a little water in a
wooden mortar: of this paste, called "El Madkuk," a bit was handed to each
person, who, rolling it into a ball, dropped it into his mouth.
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